Location Highlights
Dallas, Texas
The original location, located in the West End of Dallas, Texas, opened in 1972. The building was built in 1891 and served as a pillow factory for much of its history. One of the largest locations in the chain, including two floors and private dining rooms, it is credited as the first restaurant/retail business in the neighborhood that spurred the rebirth of the West End area of Downtown Dallas in the 70's and 80's. It is home to many former brass bed headboards, an old confessional, and the headboard and footboard of a bed that belonged to Stephen F. Austin, which is now a booth that fits up to 8 people. An original East Dallas trolley car is in the main dining room.
Austin, Texas (CLOSED)
The Austin location was the third one in the chain's history. Opened in 1975, and built in 1902, it used to be a grocery warehouse, and during prohibition, was a brothel. Two chandeliers from New York City's Penn Station reside there as well as the original box office from Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, California. Like its Dallas counterpart, it is also home to an original East Dallas trolley car. The Austin location closed April 23, 2011 due to physical building issues.
Columbus, Ohio
The Columbus location was the first Spaghetti Warehouse outside of Texas, and the fifth to open in the chain. It opened in April 1978 in an old ice house built in the 1880s. It is the largest in the company and continually exceeds its counterparts in weekly sales. In fact, it is such a "landmark" in Columbus, that many diners there believe it to be the only location. It is home to two confessionals taken from churches in New England, as well as a 1920s German elevator in which patrons may sit for dinner. The original steam engine that kept the building cold when it was an ice house, is still located in its lobby. Another artifact there includes the head of a moose killed by former President Theodore Roosevelt along with its certificate of authenticity.
Akron, Ohio
The Akron, Ohio location opened in 1992 on the site of a former Goodyear Tire warehouse, that was originally built in the late 1890s. The Akron store features a 20 foot chandelier that once belonged to the Dunes casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Although not one of the original, warehouse type stores from the 70's and 80's, it is in a historical building in a historical area, unlike other newer locations such as Plano, Texas, Arlington, Texas, or Elk Grove Village, Illinois, which are all in buildings that were built specifically to be Spaghetti Warehouses.
Memphis, Tennessee
The Memphis location is located inside a typical warehouse of the late 19th to early 20th century. It is decorated with an original trolley used for transportation in downtown Memphis, and with doors and light fixtures of the old train station that was torn down to make way for a new post office in the 1970s. Elvis Presley left on a train when he joined the army from the old train station that was on the restaurant's current site.
Houston, Texas
The Houston location is said to be haunted, and is the company's second one and second largest, after Columbus, Ohio. It opened in 1973 in Downtown Houston. Like the Dallas location, it has two floors of dining, and is the second busiest store in the chain after Columbus.
Ybor City, Tampa, Florida
The Tampa store is located in the former tobacco storage warehouse of the Ybor Factory Building in the historic neighborhood of Ybor City. The building was constructed in 1886 and was the largest cigar factory in the world at the time. The walls and floors of the restaurant consist mainly of original exposed brick, and a replica of an Ybor City street car is located inside the main dining room.
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